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Social media in this world has become much more than just a trend in society but instead, very much an important part of it. It has become a more essential form of communicating over the years and has eclipsed many other ways of communicating like phone calls or letters. It has for this generation made it more common for the average person to talk with someone more over the internet as opposed to in real life. This is because of the accessibility and immediacy that it brings users to the whole world around them.The freedom that social media can grant someone in terms of expressing their views or bringing widespread attention to a cause or issue is revolutionary and a phenomenon that is great and useful for many reasons.

The amount of people signing up for social media or logging into their social media accounts on a daily basis is by far in the hundreds of millions. The exposure to information on these social media sites that people have can be staggering. Social media is the best form of media to spread information fast. The information on many peoples timelines are very current and often times updates every minute to get report on developing stories better than any media source. 50% of people receive breaking news through social media as opposed to other media outlets and is becoming one of the top news sources in the world. (Marino,2012) The new age of social media becoming the prime news source has made many media reporters and editors use social media to send their news to a wider audience. With so much information being available at anyone’s disposal social media has the potential to have great influence over peoples perceptions and decision just like any other media source. The main difference between traditional media sources and social media is how much you can be directly involved in it. You can participate in surveys based on current issues or events or express your feelings through a post that can be shared and read by people across the world. You feel apart of whats happening and can decide on your stance based somewhat on your friends and family activity.

The most important part of social media and what it is mostly based on is the social aspect of it. Social media is the best way to facilitate or organize meetings or events and can help you communicate with friends fast and conveniently or maybe meet up and make new friends. Creating an event on a social media website such as Facebook can enable you to invite a small or large group of people on your friends list to a party or a event quite simply through a couple clicks of a mouse. You can set up the date, place and add in certain requirements for the event. You can also add people you have only met on the website and have a chance to met them in person and become better friends with them. Finding like minded people on social media websites is quite easy too with the ability to have your tastes and interests made public to others or getting into contact with people that like and show interests in the same topics as you. It is also the best platform to message your friends and family, discussing what ever you want and with as many people you want simultaneously. Sharing post or interest on a large, public scale can seem daunting to some and those people will decide to keep their feelings on certain things to themselves. With social media you can share posts on this large scale but it can seem not as worrying as in real life and this can be shown by the fact that it makes us less shy (29%) and more confident (20%) (CommonSenseMedia, 2012). This is because doing so online can make it easier to share feelings as you won’t feel as exposed or vulnerable as if you had a physical audience in front of you. The online identity gives many users the confidence and support of people that real life doesn’t offer.

Sharing original work on these sites can also often times change peoples lives. YouTube is a platform in which you can share videos to showcase talent in film making or animation among other things. Many viewers are able to offer instant feedback on their work and show support by liking or commentating on their video. By making videos on YouTube and getting continued support on it you can kick start a career in your passions which may be making YouTube videos themselves and getting money through AdSense (which is also beneficial to major companies) or get noticed for your creative work and be offered a position as part of a creative team on a project. A prime example of success of YouTube is Felix Kjellberg or better known as his YouTube username Pewdiepie. Felix is the biggest star on YouTube with a staggering 49.1 million subscribes at the time of writing this. According to COED Felix’s estimated worth is $61 million and his earnings since 2010 has been estimated at $124 million. These are opportunities that have set many people up in their lives when they had no ways of truly showcasing their talents.

The use of social media today has shown many benefits to users and given many advantages to the progression of society today. The extended use of social media will only connect us together more and help us create friendships and get informed on the current issues more easily.